Chapter 22
“Who else did she talk to, Melissa? Think!” Ethan roared, running a red light as the tires slithered over the icy asphalt.
Melissa pressed her back against the passenger seat, racking her brain. “Nobody! She didn't have friends left, Ethan! After the foreclosure, everyone abandoned her. She only talked to Arthur Pendelton, but he dropped her. Wait...”
Melissa’s eyes went wide. “There was a man. A guy named Marcus Vance. No relation to your lawyer Rebecca, just a coincidence. He’s a cousin on Dad’s side of the family—the black sheep. He spent five years in Anamosa State Penitentiary for grand theft auto and extortion. Mom loaned him money ten years ago, and he owed her.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened. Marcus Vance. A desperate criminal indebted to a unstable woman.
He looked down at his phone. The GPS tracker embedded in the dinosaur backpack was moving north on Interstate 380, traveling at seventy miles per hour. They were heading toward Waterloo, Iowa.
Suddenly, the phone in Ethan’s hand buzzed. It was a voice call from the unknown number.
He slammed it onto speakerphone. “If you touch them, I will hunt you to the ends of the earth.”
A low, gravelly chuckle came through the speaker. It wasn't Marcus. It was Lauren.
But her voice was strained, muffled, as if she was fighting through a gag. “Ethan... don't follow... he has a—”
The audio cut out with a sharp slap, followed by a grunt of pain from Lauren.
May you like
A man’s voice took over the line. “You have a beautiful family, Ethan. It’s a shame your mother bought them first. You have exactly one hour to wire fifty thousand dollars to the account I’m texting you. If the money isn't there when I hit the state line, I drop the wife on the highway and keep the boy. Your move, cousin.”
The line went dead.
